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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 


UNDER 

GENERALS 

BURNSIDE AND HOOKER, 

IN THE BATTLES OF 

FREDERICKSBURG AND CHRNGELLORSUILLE, 

December 11,12,13 and 14,1862, 

— AND — 

May 1, 2, 3 and 4,1863. 


A PAPER 

PREPARED AND READ BEFORE THE 

KANSAS COMMANDERY 

OF THE 

Military Order ohhe Loyal Legionof the United States, 

BY COMPANION 

H. SGYKOUK HALL, 

* 

Brigadier General U. S. Vols., by brevet. 




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Personal Experience Under Generals Bilrnside and Hooker in 
the Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsnille, 
December 11,12,13, and 14,1862 and May 1,2,3 and 4,1863. 


General A, E. Burnside’s order assuming command of 
the army November 9th, was followed by a few days of 
inaction, so it. was.the 16tli, when we moved from New 
Baltimore easterly through Greenwich to Catlett’s, cross¬ 
ing Cedar run below the brick mill, resuming our march 
the next day in the direction of Fredericksburg, Gen. W. 
F. Smith, “Baldy,” in command of the corps. Rain set 
in, the weather was cold, and as we camped on the old 
Alexandria and Richmond telegraph road, toward Stafford 
court house, the night of the 18th, it seemed as if the cam¬ 
paign must summarily end, by reason of the storm and 
mud* that had so often caused us disappointment. At 
this time a correspondence was in progress concerning my¬ 
self, of which I had no knowledge, till General Slocum told 
me of it long afterwards, then I secured the letters from 
the office of the Adjutant General of the state of New York. 

The originals in my posession read thus: “Headquarters 
12th Corps, Harper’s Ferry, Va., Nov. 17th, 1862. Gen¬ 
eral:- The 145th N. V. Vols., is without a Colonel, W. II. 
Allen having no commission was directed to leave the 
Post. The Regiment needs a good officer at its head. If. 
the Governor has no experienced officer in view for this 
position, I would respectfully recommend the appointment 
of Captain H. Seymour Hall, of the 27th. N. Y. ^ols. 
I am well acquainted with him, and know him to be a 
capable and efficient officer, and think his appointment 
would be a great benefit to the service. , Captain Hall has 
no knowledge of my intention to recommend him for this 
position, and in doing it I am only actuated by a desire 



4 


to improve the condition of the troops under my com¬ 
mand. I am Sir, Very Respectfully, Your Obt Svt, H. W. 
Slocum, Maj. Gen. Vols. Comdg.; Gen. Thos. Hillhouse, 
Adjt. Gen. Albany, • N. Y.” 

Accompanying the .foregoing was a letter from Gen¬ 
eral N. J. Jackson, previously Colonel of the 5th. 
Regiment Maine Volunteers, which reads, “Head¬ 
quarters 2nd. Brigade, 2nd. Division, 12 th. Corps, 
November 17 th., 1862. General:—I have the honor 
to request that Captain H. Seymour Ilall of G. 
Company, 27th. N. Y. Vols., be appointed Colonel of the 
145th. Regt. N. Y. Vols., which Regiment is now in the 
Brigade under my command and has no Colonel. The 
145th. Regiment is composed of good material, yet in 
its present state of discipline it needs an energetic 
and able commander. I have known Captain Ilall for 
the past fifteen months and consider him in every way 
qualified to fill the above mentioned position. 
Should this recommendation meet with the approval of 
his Excellency, Governor Morgan, I should be pleased to 
have the appointment made as soon as practicable. I am 
very truly Your obedient servant, N. J. Jackson, Brig. 
Gen’l. Vols. Comdg. Brigade; Brig. Gen’l. Thomas Hill- 
house, Adjt. Gen. State of New York.” 

The endorsement on this, as is his own letter, is wholly in 
General Slocum’s hand writing. It reads “Headquarters 
12th Army Corps, Harpers Ferry, Va., November 20th, 1862. 
I have been personally acquainted with Captain Hall since 
the commencement of the war and know him to be a cap¬ 
able, efficient, and faithful officer, and most cordially 
unite with General Jackson in this recommendation. A 
Colonel should be appointed for this Regiment as soon as 
possible. H. W. Slocum, Major General Vols., Comdg. 
Corps.” Why the governor did not make this appoint¬ 
ment I do not know. No Colonel was appointed, and 
General Slocum, transferred the companies to other regi¬ 
ments, thus breaking up the regimental organization. 
Meantime as we occupied the northern bank of the Rap- 


5 


pahannock, the enemy were in force on the opposite bank, 
the relations between the men on the picket line, were 
quite friendly, rumors of exchange of coffee for tobacco, 
and one night of some Alabamans, whom we had encount¬ 
ered at first Bull Run under Gen. Bee, crossing and drink¬ 
ing coffee, were heard. 

Some of the boys afterward confirmed this rumor, and 
I had reason to believe that some of the Lima students 
assisted in entertaining those bright young men from Ala¬ 
bama, at the midnight coffee drinking, and afterwards 
escorted them to their boat with friendly courtesy. The 
w'eather and the condition of the roads precluded the possi¬ 
bility of moving against the enemy, the supplying of 
rations from our new base, Belle Plain, on Acquia creek, 
was a very difficult matter. We had no orders to prepare 
for winter quarters, but log walls for our tents were 
built, and on the first of December, I received an order 
from General Franklin, now commanding the Left Grand 
Division of the three into which the army was organized, 
to proceed to Washington, and procure the property bet- 
longing to the command, which had been stored there 
since our return from the Peninsula. On my return we 
moved the 4th. to Belle Plain, a storm of rain, snow, and 
intense cold, coming upon us on the way, and arriving 
after dark, we were exposed to its fury, without adequate 
shelter, the whole night. We at once assumed the guard 
and fatigue duty at the landing, but the weather being 
very cold, the exposure and suffering very great, the 
order to return to our position opposite Fredericksburg 
on the 10th., was welcome, though it did promise us a 
closer acquaintance with the enemy, who had been allowed 
ample time to fortify the position, naturally very strong, 
against which we were to advance. The prelude was already 
begun when we arrived on the scene. Fredericksburg 
and the batteries on the heights in rear were being furi¬ 
ously bombarded by our heavy artillery, fire and flame 
were raging in the city, and when the thunder of our bat¬ 
teries was answered by the enemy, the screaming, shriek- 


6 


ing projectiles from his heavy Whitworth guns found 
their way into our bivouc, and disturbed our rest. Early 
on the morning of the 11th., our brigade, commanded by 
Colonel H. L. Cake, 96tb. Pennsylvania Vols., took posi¬ 
tion near where pontoon bridges Were to be thrown across 
the Rappahannock river, 2-| niiles below the city, in readi¬ 
ness to cross, which we did at nightfall, deployed skirm¬ 
ishers, advanced on the left half a mile without seeing the 
enemy, when we were recalled, left pickets on the right 
bank, recrossed, and bivouacked for the night. All day 
and throughout the following night, the-earth shook with 
the thunder, of the heavy artillery * the flash and roar of 
the guns on Stafford heights, were answered by flash and 
roar from Marye’s heights and the adjacent hills, while 
the fiery trail of the deadly shells in the air, and tl e 
devouring flames consuming the doomed city on the plain, 
lent a terrible sublimity to the scene. Early next morning, 
Friday, our Left Grand Division was' in motion, pressing 
forward over two pontoon bridges, taking position in line, 
facing the intrenchments in which the command of Gen¬ 
eral T. J. Jackson, with him, “Stonewall”, for their com¬ 
mander, awaited our onset. A heavy cloud of fog and 
battle smoke overhung the plain, and shut out of sight 
the ruined city. Scarcely were we,in place, when Colonel 
Adams ordered me take two companies, and ascertain 
who held Fredericksburg. Noiselessly, under cover of 
the friendly fog, my mission was accomplished.- • I ascer¬ 
tained that General Sumner had crossed, driven ••the.r.foe 
•from the streets, and grimly held what he had so audaci¬ 
ously seized. I returned, reported the facts to Colonel 
Adams, was ordered by him to communicate them to 
General Brooks. The General thereupon ordered me to 
take two hundred men and establish a line of pickets com¬ 
municating with General Sumner’s Grand Division, which 
I did, advancing them to the front within two hundred 
yards of the enemy’s outposts, undiscovered till the fog 
rolled away. 

On the morning of the 13th. Jackson, attempted his 


favorite tactical movement by a fierce and sudden attack 
on our left flank, and continued to press us in that part 
of the field for several hours with the most determined 
valor, till about four o’clock P. M., when we suddenly 
took the offensive, drove him back over a mile, and held 
the ground through the night and the next day, both 
sides keeping well under cover from the constant fusilade 
of musketry and artillery. On the right the field of 
action where Sumner, attempting the impossible task of 
driving Longstreet from the most strongly fortified and 
impregnable heights, was in plain sight from our position 
on the plain. Six times did his gallant men steadily ad¬ 
vance to the assault Of those now forever historic heights, 
six times were the brave battalions successively almost 
destroyed by the tempest of fire and leaden hail, and as 
fresh ones took their place, their dead found lying in line 
of battle, their few surviving comrades bleeding, broken 
but not dismayed. Such discipline and devotion to duty 
had rarely been seen before, as were that Saturday, 
December 13, 1862, displayed on the heights behind the 
little city on the plain. Sunday and Monday were passed 
in vigilant watchfulness, amid a constant roar of artillery, 
and rattle of musketry, but as both our men and the 
enemy kept well under cover, neither attempting to ad¬ 
vance from their position, the casualities were not very 
considerable. At midnight, our occupancy of that plain 
having continued the 11th., 12th., 13th., 14th., and 15th., 
we retired across the Rappahannock, unmolested by the 
enemy. About noon as will be found to be the case after 
almost every battle, rain fell, and continued unremittingly 
till all were thoroughly wet and miserable. On the 19th. 
we went into camp near Whit^- Oak Church, where on 
the 22nd., I was detailed on Court Martial, of which Col. 
H. L. Cake Avas president, in session the rest of the year. 

No orders Avere issued to go into winter quarters, but 
the men had learned by experience to avail themselves of 
every appearance of a period of respite from campaigning 
fo make their quarters as comfortable as the surroundings 


8 


would allow, and the regimental and company officers 
gave them encouragement and assistance in building tim¬ 
ber walls, and clay fire places, beneath their roofing of 
shelter tents, and while the army was to refit, the men 
had comfortably housed and sheltered themselves, without 
the least assurance from army headquarters, that this 
would be our final camping place for the remainder of the 
winter. A few days before what is known as “The Mud 
March,” was ordered by General Burnside, this order was 
delivered to me. “Headquarters 2nd. Brigade, January 
15th., 1863. General Orders No. 2. Jn obedience to 
General Orders No. 3., Headquarters Left Grand Division, 
Captain H. S. Hall, 27th. N. Y. Vols., is hereby appointed 
Inspector of this Brigade, and will be obeyed and respected 
accordingly. He will report at once for duty at these 
Headquarters. By order of Brigadier General Bartlett. 
R. P. Wilson, A. A. A. Gen’l.” 

The mud march was to begin on Sunday the 18th., but 
General Franklin made a suggestion that unless every¬ 
thing was fully in readiness, it would be better to 
leave the troops yet that day in camp, so that it was the 
19th. when we struck our tents, and marched up the Rap¬ 
pahannock with the purpose of turning the enemy’s left 
by the upper fords of the river, and surprising him by an 
attack on his flank and rear. Before nightfall the rain 
began "to fall, and soon the roadway became a stream of 
thin, almost bottomless mud, but our orders w T ere impera¬ 
tive and we waded on, with all the enthusiasm gone out 
of us. Night came, and -weary and dispirited we sat us 
down in the rain and darkness to wait for daylight, but 
not to sleep. In the morning we secured a tent to shelter 
the General and other officers at brigade headquarters, 
and we remained where the darkness of the previous night 
overtook us, near Banks’ ford, which was the place desig¬ 
nated for the crossing of the main body of the army. We 
were close to General Burnside’s tents, near a ravine 
which the road leading to the ford crossed, and almost 
every gun, pontoon wagon, or other wagon, that essayed 


9 


the passage stuck in the mud, till the efforts of the teams 
were aided by the men, till finally the ravine became im¬ 
passable and the effort was abandoned. From the 
characteristic language of the drivers, the infantry within 
hearing unanimously christened the place, “Profanity 
Gulch”. The expectation of surprising the enemy, with 
which General Burnside had set out, was evidently im¬ 
possible of realization, so with his designs exposed to the 
enemy’s cavalry, who gleefully observed our situation 
from their safe location on the opposite bank of the river, 
and his movement thwarted by the rain and mud, he gave 
orders on the 23rd. for the army to return to camp. 
General Brooks’ division, being retained to guard the 
pontoon trains, did not retire till the 24th., when we 
were drawn up on both sides of the road over which the 
wagons loaded with boats and bridge material must pass. 
General Benham had drag ropes attached to wagons that 
were stuck fast in the mud, from which the teams had 
been taken when the forward movement was abandoned, 
and without putting the teams on requested General 
Brooks to have his troops take the ropes and pull the 
wagons out. I heard the reply, “Where are your animals? 
By—Sir, put on your animals, put on your animals first, 
by —Sir.” General Benham put on his animals, the men 
took the ropes, and we were soon toiling through the 
mud on our way to the old camp, which we reached about 
night the 24th. Immediately all set to work to perfect 
new quarters, my new duties keeping me busy with in¬ 
spection of the troops, and seeing that reports and returns 
required of company and regimental officers were made 
out and forwarded, and that the required books were 
properly kept, a regulation which had been very little 
observed, and although not forming a part of the brigade, 
some horses and other public property of Williston’s 
famous battery received some attention by virtue of this 
order, “Headquarters 1st. Division, 6th. Corps, February 
19th., 1863. General Orders No. 49. Captain H. Sey¬ 
mour Hall, Inspector of the 2nd. Brigade, is detailed to 


10 


examine into, and report upon, the condition of certain 
public horses belonging to battery “D” 2nd. U. S. Ar¬ 
tillery. By order of Brigadier General Brooks. A. II. 
Parsons, A. A. A. General.” In providing myself with a 
saddle horse, required by my new duties on the staff of 
the brigade commander, a Morgan mare was shown me by 
Colonel Lewis A. Grant, of the 5th. Regiment Vermont 
Volunteers; from him I purchased her, rode her in every 
campaign of the army of the Potomac till the end of the 
war, and on the Rio Grande, in Texas, under General 
Sheridan. The name and rank of the gentleman who 
sold me this, my favorite animal, will identify him as the 
General Grant, who was assistant Secretary of War, from 
1888 to December, 1898* Another piece of good fortune 
happened to me in the detail on the staff of;General Bart¬ 
lett, of Captain W. W. Winthrop as additional Aid-de- 
Camp, and his taking quarters in the tent with me, so 
that during the winter 1 had the pleasure of being thus 
intimately associated with him. The gallant and accomp¬ 
lished Theodore Winthrop, the author of John Brent, &c. 
who was on the staff of General Butler, and was killed at 
Big Bethel, was his brother. Just at the close 
of winter, Captain Winthrop was ordered to report for 
duty in the office of Judge Advocate General Joseph 
Holt, War Depart.ement, Washington, and is now 
Judge Advocate U. S. Army, Colonel, and instructor in 
international law at the Military Academy at West Point. 

This paper is not intended to embrace general history, 
but it is well to state here that on the 23rd. of January, 
General Burnside drew up an order dismissing from the 
service Generals Hooker, Brooks, and New r ton, and re¬ 
lieving from duty Generals Franklin, Smith, Sturgis, Fer- 
rero, and Cochrane;' went to Washington, submitted it to 
President Lincoln, by whom it was not approved, hence 
it was never issued, but on the 25th., the President 
directed that General Burnside be relieved from command 
of the Army of the Potomac, at his own request, and 
General Joseph Hooker assigned to the command. The 


work of equipment drill and diserpliile Went! on till the 
army seemed to be almost perfect in all its appointments. 
While Burnside was still in command, “Little Copeland,” 
(now Rev. J. A.,) whom I have before mentioned, was 
correspondent for a Rochester, N. Y. news paper. He 
sent an account of Fredericksburg, and some meddler 
furnished to General Burnside a copy of the paper in 
which it appeared, and the information of whom the 
writer was, and where he could be found. lie was put 
in confinement under the Provost Marshal’s guard at army 
headquarters, and charges preferred against him of “In¬ 
directly giving information to the enemy”. A Court was 
ordered for his trial, of which General Daniel E. Sickels 
was president, and having determined what course I 
would take to secure his release, I went early bn the day 
of the trial, and when the Case came up, made the sug¬ 
gestion that the court had no jurisdiction, and that the 
defendant should be tried in his own division, a view 
which the court adopted, and remanded him to General 
Brooks for trial. Meantime I had acquainted General 
Brooks with the case, and furnished him with a copy of 
the article, so when Copeland was turned over to him he 
showed the boy the paper and asked in his most brusque 
manner and gruff tone “Did you write that?” “Yes sir, 

was the answer.” You are a--fool for owning it. Go 

to your company and report for. duty,” That was the last 
'of 'the matter. 

' The end- of March was approaching; and General 
Bartlett’s appointment had not been confirmed by 
the senate. On the 2flth. he notified me to order mv 
horse and accompany him to Army Headquarters, where 
myself with other members of his staff were shown into 
General Hooker’s tent with him. The commander of the 
army was in fine spirits, and after wine and cigars were 
tendered us, he engaged in conversation with our chief, 
we listened. Of course more was said that led up to the 
General’s remarks, “1 have the finest array the sun ever 
shone on. I can march this army to New Orleans. My 



12 


plans are perfect, and when I start to carry them out, 
may God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have 
none.” The words made an impression on me I have 
never forgotten, and often have been in my mind. After 
a while General Bartlett made known his errand. 
“General I have come to bid you good-bye, and to be¬ 
speak your favor for these young gentlemen who compose 
my military family. The Senate has not confirmed 
my appointment, and my commission has expired by limi¬ 
tation.” The tall, fine looking soldier, one of the finest 
looking in the army, had a skin as clear, and a hand as 
small as many a lady, and his clear blue eyes looked fully 
and frankly into the face of his subordinate as hge said, 
“When you return to your quarters take off your uniform, 
keep quiet till you hear from me. Tomorrow I will go 
to Washington, and see the President.” The'next day 
was Monday, and on Tuesday General Butterfield, dis¬ 
patched to General Bartlett, “Put on your uniform.” He 
was reappointed. 

The grand division organization was discontinued and 
General John Sedgwick relieved General W. F. Smith in 
command of the sixth corps, on the 4th. of February, and 
General in Chief Halleck, seemed to be in shadow, as 
General Hooker reported direct to the president, and not¬ 
withstanding his alleged readiness to annihilate General 
Lee, he was in no haste to set out. On the 18th. of April, 
while still in our winter camps, 1 was ordered by General 
Brooks to serve as Judge Advocate of a General Court 
Martial of which General J. J. Bartlett was president, 
and soon after the close of our tarm, the campaign opened 
with us, by a move down to the river under cover of the 
darkness near the place where we had crossed the Decem¬ 
ber previous, and at 4 o’clock A. M., April 29tli., with 
permission of General Bartlett, I dismounted and went 
over in the boats with the first detachment, which drove 
the 21st. Mississippi from their rifle pits on the bank of 
the river, with a loss of two killed and eleven wounded, 
then advanced a mile, and took position to protect the 


13 


engineers while building their bridges, and dug rifle pits 
during the night, and the following night I spent with 
Colonel Emory Upton on the picket line, listening and 
watching for the enemy’s movements. At the outset 
there were three corps with General Sedgwick, two were 
withdrawn before any general movement was made, 
leaving him with only his own, the sixth, to cope with 
the command of General Jackson in his front, and on his 
left toward Port Royal. 

Leaving General Early’s division, Barksdale’s brigade 
of McLaws’ division, and General Pendleton with part of 
the Reserve Artillery to confront us below the city, and 
General Wilcox’s division with the Washington Artillery 
to hold the heights above, General Jackson moved with 
the rest of his command on the morning of the first of 
May, to join General Lee at Chancellorsville, a movement 
which culminated in his famous flank movement around 
General Hooker’s right. Our line was maintained from 
Deep run on the right, to the ruins of the Bernard house 
on the left, the centre advanced to include part of the 
Richmond road within the extremities of our line, and 
this situation was maintained without material »hange 
till the afternoon of May 2nd., when after a sharp engage¬ 
ment, we gained considerable ground on our right. Up 
to this time General Sedgwick’s orders from General 
Hooker had been quite varied. The 29th. only Brooks’ 
division was to cross; the 30th. two bridges were to be 
taken up and sent to Banks’ ford; May 1st. he was ordered 
to make a demonstration in force at 1 P. M., and to let 
it be as severe as possible without being an attack^ to 
assume a threatening attitude, and maintain it till further 
orders. That order was not received till 5 P. M., hence 
could not be obeyed as to the time, but owing to the last 
clause, movements were at once begun to execute the 
order, and just as they were completed, orders were re¬ 
ceived countermanding the demonstration. May 2nd., he 
was ordered to take up all the bridges at Franklin’s 
crossing, and below, before daylight. That order was 


14 


not received till 5.25 A. M., after dayliurlit. At <>.30 P. 
M., he was ordered to pursue the enemy by the Bowling 
Green road, and the corps was at once put in motion, and 
after a hard tight pushed the enemy from the road back 
into the woods. That night, at 1 1 o’clock, he received 
an order dated 10.10 Ik M., directing him to cross the 
Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, immediately upon re¬ 
ceipt of the order, and move in the direction of Chancel- 
lorsville until he connected with the major-general com¬ 
manding; to attack and destroy any force on the road, 
and be in the vicinity of the general at daylight. A 
moment’s consideration will show the utter impossibility 
of obeying that order literally. Sedgwick’s entire force 
was on the south side of the Rappahannock, “to pursue 
by the Bowling Green road.” There were no bridges 
laid at Fredericksburg, and to recross, move up opposite 
that place, lay bridges, for the purpose of getting back 
to the side he was on when the order reached him, would 
have taken till long after daylight, even if there had been 
no enemy to resist his crossing. lie at once put the 
second and third divisions in motion toward the city, be¬ 
fore which the enemy retired slowly, stubbornly contest¬ 
ing every inch of ground from almost our bridge head, 
and at the same time made a sudden attack on our pickets 
in front of the Bernard house, showing that it would by 
no means be an easy task “to destroy any force on the 
road,” but pushing the enemy back through the town be¬ 
fore daylight, the enemy’s stronghold on the heights in 
the rear, was at once assailed by Wheaton and Shaler, 
who were repulsed by the tire of the rifle pits and the 
batteries on the heights in their rear, while their line on 
front of and to the left of our, Brooks’ division, was 
strongly held. It was now daylight, and while a stronger 
assaulting column was being formed, the artillery swept 
the slope and.kept the enemy’s infantry and batteries 
under cover, while we engaged him on the left, assaulted 
and carried his strongly fortified position on the railroad, 
at nine ,A. ]V1., just before the assaulting column was 


15 


ready to advance and carry those fortified heights from 
which were destroyed over 13,000 men of General Burn¬ 
side’s army only four months before. At 10 A. M., this 
bright Sunday morning of May 3rd., 18G3, the dispositions 
being completed, the divisions of Generals Newton and 
Howe swept forward up the slope, carrying line after 
line of rifle pits with the bayonet, capturing many 
prisoners, the horses, and all but two guns of the 
Washington Artillery, with a dash and gallantry that 
excited the greatest admiration from us as we witnessed 
the glorious spectacle. By noon the entire heights were 
won, General Early’s forces were divided, Barksdale 
falling back with Early on the telegraph road, and Hays 
with Wilcox’s division on the plank road toward Chan- 
cellorsville. At the same time General Brooks command¬ 
ing our division was rapidly moving his command to the 
plank road to take the advance, while McLaws was 
hastening along the same road from Chancellorsville to 
meet us, unite his command with Early’s, Wilcox’, and 
Barksdale’s. Wilcox took a strong position on a ridge 
which ran at right angles to the plank road at Salem 
church, and also threw a force into the brick church and 
a neighboring schoolhouse. He was here joined by the 
other commands mentioned, and by leaving a strong force 
with the only two guns saved from the works on Marye’s 
heights, falling back from ridge to ridge, shelling our 
advance, one shell killing an orderly of General Brooks, 
and wounding Capt. Theodore Read, his Adjutant General, 
as he was riding near me, delayed our advance so that his 
naturally strong position was well protected by rifle pits, 
thrown up before we were in position to attack. From 
our position on Deep run to Salem church the distance 
was about seven miles, and from the point where we 
reached the plank road, the church was about five miles 
distant, over all of which distance our advance was hotly 
contested, so that we could not have pushed rapidly for¬ 
ward and taken possession of the strong ridge and its 
sheltering timber at Salem church, before the enemy did, 


16 


as has been suggested, nor did we know of the existence 
of such a position. 

At 5.30 P. M. our skirmishers pushed through the 
narrow belt of thick underbrush, in which grew some 
scattering trees, that was in front of, and concealed from 
us the abruptly rising bank upon which the enemy's in- 
trenchments and strong line of troops, and the church and 
school house, now converted into citadels filled with armed 
men, were located, the force with which we had been 
contending strengthened as reported by 26,000 men and 
four batteries under General McLaws, awaited with con¬ 
fidence our assault. 

Recalling our skirmishers, our brigade, Bartlett’s, ad¬ 
vanced through the almost impenetrable thicket, across 
deep ravines that impeded our progress and broke our 
alignment, expose 1 to a destructive fire of musketry and 
artillery, from which the tangled bushes did not protect 
us, but did prevent our returning, on we pressed, and as 
we came out on the opposite side of the thicket, the steep 
bank, the church, the school house, the enemy’s line of 
rifle pits fringed with fire were before us. Up the slope 
we rushed, charged and carried the intrenchments, 
stormed the church and school house, and for a brief 
period held them. But Newton’s division had not come 
up, no supports were at hand, when Wilcox reinforced by 
Semmes’ brigade, led by General Semmes in person, and 
seconded by attacks on our flanks, made possible by our 
advanced position, gallantly advanced against us, we were 
compelled to abandon the ground we had carried, which 
w r as the key to the situation, and fall slowly back through 
the thicket and across an open field beyond, perhaps five 
hundred yards in all, the enemy’s attempt to follow^ us, 
being repulsed by the obstinate resistance of our infantry, 
and the fire of Williston’s, Rigsby’s and Parson’s Bat¬ 
teries. 

General Bartlett states that his command numbered 
less than 1500, and in this assault, according to a memo¬ 
randum made by me at the time, our brigade lost 649 


IV 


officers and men. The official reports make it 3V less. 

1 he famous 121st. New York Volunteers, commanded by 
Colonel Emory Upton, to which I was transferred as 
Captain three weeks later at Colonel Upton’s request, (on 
the expiration of the term of the 2Vth. N. Y. Vols., to 
which I belonged,) lost 27G in this battle. It is one of 
the immortal forty four regiments, that lost more men in 
battle than any others in the service. 

As we were entering the timber on our advance I was 
riding in haste to the left of the brigade with orders from 
General Bartlett; General Brooks galloping in the oppo¬ 
site direction, met me at a ravine in which a number of 
men not belonging to our brigade were sheltering them¬ 
selves from the storm of shot and shell to which we were 
exposed. Reining in his horse for an instant, the 
General pointed to them, and said to me, “Captain see 

those-cowards, see the-cowards, get them out 

of there, and put them in front.” I saluted, said his 
order should be obeyed, and he galloped away. Quickly 
delivering the first order with which I was charged, I re¬ 
turned, ordered them up and forward, when they began 
to protest that they were pioneers, and that their business 
was to work and not to light. I insisted in much more 
forcible language that as pioneers their place was in front, 
where General Brooks had ordered them, and that their 
proper working tools for the job in hand, were their 
muskets, carried my point, and put them where the Gene¬ 
ral directed, then reported to General Bartlett. We made 
another effort to carry the enemy’s position just before 
dark, but it was too strongly fortified, and held with the 
help of General McLaws’ command and part of Ander¬ 
son’s, these reinforcements reported to be 26,000 strong, 
to enable us to gain another such foothold as our brigade 
had obtained in the first assault, and we were ordered to 
desist and rest on our arms till morning. Monday morn¬ 
ing of May 4th dawned, and with it came the report that 
a column of 15,000 men from the direction of Richmond 
had the heights of Fredericksburg, cutting off the sixth 






18 


corps from communication with the town, and trying to 
interpose between us and Banks’ ford. Taking advantage 
of General Hooker’s inactivity from the time the main 
army under his command had been shut up behind the 
strong fortifications near United States ford at noon of 
Sunday May 3rd., General Lee left only the troops of the 
flanking column of Stonewall Jackson’s late command, 
under General J. E. B. Stewart, to hold the six corps 
under Hooker within their fortifications, while he with 
the remainder of the Confederate army, came in person 
to join Early, Wilcox, and McLaws, to, as he says, drive 
Sedgwick across the Rappahannock, but as we heard it at 
the time, to capture, or drive us into the river. His first 
attempt w r as to cut us off from the ford and this was not 
only handsomely repulsed by General Howe’s division, but 
that division captured 200 prisoners and a battle flag. 
The task of capturing or driving the Sixth Corps into the 
river was not so easy as it seemed from the distance of 
Cliancellorsville, although Hooker sent Sedgwick word 
that precluded any hope of help. However, General Lee 
was resolved, so bringing up every man and gun that was 
available, and giving them time to rest, his final disposi¬ 
tions for the attack were at last complete, and at 5 P. M., 
the enemy’s artillery opened on our lines. 

Our brigade being on a ridge on the left of Captain 
McCartney’s battery, (A First Massachusetts,) was fully 
exposed to this fire, from which we would have been 
sheltered by moving down the slope, a few r paces to the 
rear. General Bartlett sent me to General Brooks to 
request his permission. As I rode off, a regiment on the 
right of the battery, not of our brigade, retired behind 
the hill, and the movement was seen by General Sedg¬ 
wick. As I neared the piazza on which he was standing 
with Gen. Brooks, Sedgwick, without looking at my face, 
my uniform being covered by a poncho, took me for the 
commander of that regiment, said, “Colonel, why did you 
move your regiment without orders, sir?” 

Before I could reply he recognized me and asked, 


19 

“What is it, Captain?” I replied, “General Bartlett sends 
his compliments, sir, and requests permission to retire his 
brigade a few yards, behind the shelter of the ridge.” He 
responded, “Give my compliments to General. Bartlett, 
and say that his brigade must remain in position, and not 
move a foot now.” As I rode to the front, Generals 
Sedgwick and Brooks rode to the brigade after me, 
reaching our position by Captain McCartney’s battery just 
as General Lee in person, was directing his infantry to 
the attack on us. The 27th. N. Y. Vols., to which 1 be¬ 
longed, the two years term for which it was mustered 
into the service of the United States, having only three 
weeks more to run, was on the skirmish line in front of our 
brigade and McCartney’s baltery. The particular force 
to which our brigade was opposed at this time, 6 P. M., 
was Hoke’s and Wright’s brigades, and as they came 
within range our skirmishers and McCartney’s battery 
absolutely stopped their progress, and threw them into 
confusion. 

The boys of the 27th. took advantage of every place of 
shelter on the skirmish line, from w T hich to deliver an ac¬ 
curate and rapid lire, while the artillery smashed and 
scattered the advancing columns. At the enemy’s hesita¬ 
tion and confusion, our skirmishers cried out, <i come on 
Johnnie , do come over and see us.” Falling back in the 
shelter of the timber, out of the range of our guns, the 
formation of the enemy was changed from column to line 
of battle, and again advanced to attack us, but our skir¬ 
mishers redoubled their former efforts to repel the attack, 
repeated their derisive cries, yielded not one foot of 
ground, and as the artillerymen warmed to their work, 
McCartney formed his guns by battery, sent home the 
case shot, and as the contest warmed his blood, raised in 
his stirrups, shouted to his eager men, “Aim, right section 
to the right oblique, left section to the left oblique, Fire; 

and shed the whole - country ”. The men blackened 

by powder smoke, worked like demons, the guns belched 
forth a flood of fiery death, and the hill seemed to rock 



20 


under the terriffic thunder of the battery; great gaps were 
opened in the enemy’s lines, by the tornado of shot and. 
shell, they retired into the friendly shelter of the 
woods, and night, darkness and silence, drew a curtain of 
mercy over the fearful scene. 

Our friends, the enemy, pass lightly over such episodes 
as this, and General Early says in regard to this particu¬ 
lar hour, “Hays advancing in the center from the foot of 
the hill, opposite the mill on Hazel Run; Hoke on the 
left, advancing across the hill on which Downman’s house 
is situated and below it, driving the enemy before them. 
This movement was commenced very late, and Hays’ and 
Hoke’s brigades were thrown into some confusion by 
coming in contact after they crossed the Plank road be¬ 
low Guest’s house, and it becoming difficult to distinguish 
our troops from those of the enemy, on account of the 
growing darkness, they had, therefore to fall back to re¬ 
form, which was done on the plain below Guest’s house.” 

He also says, in the next paragraph of his official re¬ 
port: “The loss in my division during all the time from 
the crossing was 136 killed, 838 wounded, and some 500 
are reported missing, the greater part of whom are in all 
probability, stragglers. This does not include the loss in 
Barksdale’s brigade and the artillery.” As his division 
was at no time as much exposed as in this time of its ad¬ 
vance against us, the “Contact” of Hoke’s and Hays’ 
brigades must have been very violent to have caused, as 
General Early says, that “They had to fall back to re¬ 
form”, and to account for a reasonable proportion of his 
loss. What they did come in contact with, was the shot 
and shell from McCartney’s, Williston’s, and DePeyster’s 
guns. Thus Sedgwick had obeyed the injunction of 
Hooker, to “Look well to the safety of your corps.” 

The safety of the corps was now assured, and General 
Sedgwick, as soon as the darkness concealed his move¬ 
ments from the enemy, proceeded to carry out Hookers 
further orders, “to recross, in preference, at Banks’ 
Ford, where you can more readily communicate with the 


21 


main body.” We fell back and took position on the 
heights, near Scotts’, below Banks’ Ford, the enemy occu¬ 
pying heights on the river bank, both above and below 
our position. 

General Sedgwick says, “On Tuesday, the 5th., at 2 
A. M., I received the order of the commanding general to 
withdraw from my position, cross the river, take up the 
bridge, and cover the ford. The order was immediately 
executed, the enemy meanwhile shelling the bridges from 
commanding positions above us on the river. When the 
last of the column was on the bridge, I received a dis¬ 
patch from the commanding general countermanding the 
order to withdraw. My command was on the left bank, 
it could not recross before daylight, and must do it then, 
if at all, in face of the enemy, whose batteries completely 
commanded the bridges. I accordingly went into camp 
in the vicinity of the ford, sending an adequate force to 
guard the river and watch the ford. 

The losses of the Sixth Corps in these operations were 
4,925 killed, wounded and missing. We captured from 
the enemy, according to the best information we could 
obtain, 5 battle-flags, 15 pieces of artillery—9 of which 
were brought off, the others falling into the hands of the 
enemy upon the subsequent reoccupation of Fredericks¬ 
burg by his forces—and 1400 prisoners, including many 
officers of rank. No material of any kind belonging to 
the corps fell into the hands of the enemy except several 
wagons and a forge that were passing through Fredericks¬ 
burg at the time of its reoccupation by his forces.” On 
the 6th., we returned to our old camps. 

General Bartlett says in his official report, “I have pur¬ 
posely reserved until the last all mention of the Sixteenth 
and Twenty-seventh New York regiments. The term of 
service of these regiments had nearly expired before the 
campaign had commenced; yet, true to the instincts of the 
soldier, both officers and men have elicited the warmest 
admiration for their gallant conduct throughout. The 
Twenty-seventh also has its glory roll. The Sixteenth 


and Twenty-seventh Regiments retire from my command 
and from the service of the United States after two years 
active service having participated in the first battle of the 
Army of the Potomac, and in its last with honor. They 
deserve well of their country and will be received with 
honor by their friends. During the campaign, I received 
the most efficient aid from Captain H. Seymour Hall, 
assistant inspector-general, who was brave, energetic, and 
untiring in his endeavors to promote the efficiency of my 
command.” 

The future historian will be puzzled by the strange 
failure of General Hooker to make any detailed official 
report of the operations of the army under his command, 
during the Chaneellorsville campaign and battles; but as 
none has been published in the official records, and as he 
had ample time to make such report during the nearly 
two months subsequent to Chaneellorsville, that he was 
still in the command of the army, it is fair to assume that 
he made no such report, unless, like all other reports of his 
during his command of the Army of the Potomac, it was 
made direct to President Lincoln, and failed to reach the 
tiles in the office of the Adjutant General of the army. 






















































































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